1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transport arm device and, more particularly, to a transport arm device for one or more carrying discs at one time.
2. Description of the Related Art
As more and more people become use to dealing with digital information in their daily lives, different information storage devices are being produced. Considering the low cost of discs and improvements in optical disk drives, the information storage device that most people use is a disc.
If the disc tray of the optical disk drive extends out completely, the mechanical arm can retrieve the disc. But as more and more computers are designed to be smaller, their disc trays do not extend out completely. FIG. 1A shows a disc tray 11a extending out completely. In this type of the optical disk drive 11, the disc tray 11a for placing a disc 4 not only extends out completely but also keeps a distance D with the surface panel of the optical disk drive 11. Therefore, the disc 4 can be retrieved by the mechanical arm using conventional way of horizontal retrieving without any difficulties. On the other hand, FIG. 1B shows a disc tray 11b extended incompletely. In this type of the optical disk drive 11′, the disc tray 11b for placing the disc 4 is not extended completely but remain inside a distance D′ from the surface panel of the optical disk drive 11′. Therefore, the disc 4 can't be retrieved by the mechanical arm using the conventional way of horizontal retrieving, because the mechanical arm would be blocked by the surface panel of the optical disk drive 11′.
In addition, in the prior art, the conventional transport arm device can only carry one disc at one time.